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Thursday, February 17, 2011

MODEL OF ICONIC SPIRIT OF BRISTOL SCULPTURE TO SELL AT BONHAMS

A stainless steel 57cm high model of Paul Mount’s iconic Spirit of Bristol sculpture is to be sold at Bonhams as part of its Vision 21 sale on 16 March 2011, and has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £2,000 – 3,000.
 
Cornwall-based artist, Paul Mount, who died in 2009 at the age of 86, was asked by the Bristol City Council to create the Spirit of Bristol sculpture at the end of the 1960s. It has been situated in a public space next to the Haymarket in Bristol since 1971.
 
Intended to represent the city’s trading past, it was one of the few modern art works to be commissioned in the conservative Bristol of the 1960s and 70s. The five-metre high piece was greeted with a mixed response – some thought it ugly and inappropriate, while others thought it symbolic, with its sail-shaped wings, and avant-garde.
 
In 2009, two Bristol art enthusiasts, John Huggins, vice-president of the Royal West of England Academy, and Richard Wyatt, morning presenter on BBC Radio Bristol, called for the Spirit of Bristol to be better looked after, following years of vandalism and decay.
 
 

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further five throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas.For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com

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